Student leaders at the State University of New York at Binghamton are urging their university to rethink its relationship with the American Red Cross, which enforces a Food and Drug Administration policy banning men who have sex with other men from donating blood.
While AU's Student Government has not formally addressed the issue, former SG Secretary Alex Manzanares has coordinated advocacy work with Queers and Allies that urges the FDA to end its lifetime ban on men who have sex with men.
The policy, which went into effect during the height of the AIDS epidemic in 1983, bans any male who has had any sexual contact with another male since 1977 from donating blood, according to the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Web site.
SUNY Binghamton's student government is attempting to pass a resolution that claims the blood ban violates the university's nondiscrimination policy, according to the Pipe Dream, SUNY Binghamton's student newspaper.
SUNY Binghamton Student Association Vice President for Academic Affairs Matt Landau told the Pipe Dream he wanted to make it clear the university was discriminating against men who have sex with men.
"[The resolution's purpose] is to send a message to the university that the SA thinks that the Red Cross is discriminating against homosexuals," he said.
Manzanares said HIV is a virus that affects more than just gay men.
"Everyone is susceptible to HIV, regardless of their sexual orientation," he said. "Everyone should be treated equally through the actual donation scan."
Nicholas Sakurai, program coordinator for AU's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally Resource Center, said he thinks the FDA should change the lifetime ban to a one-year ban.
"That's a fair compromise," he said.
Manzanares said he is pushing for an outright removal of the ban.
"I don't think anyone is going to be sexually abstinent for over a year," he said. "I don't think it's going to create a huge change in the numbers, either. I would advocate for a full removal of the ban."
The Pipe Dream reported the SUNY Binghamton student assembly is not trying to ban the Red Cross from its campus.
Sakurai said this ban would be harmful.
"I struggle with finding the right strategy, but when you look at the facts, it's discrimination," he said. "At the same time, you have to realize that you could do more harm by forcing blood drives off campus than by keeping them on campus and encouraging the FDA to end the discriminatory blood ban."
Manzanares said he didn't think it was fair to ban the Red Cross.
"We really don't have another viable option," he said. "There's no other blood donation center that can do that. It's an FDA regulation."
Manzanares said he feels the ban should be removed soon because it is hurting the blood supply.
"You're actually losing life here," he said. "You're hurting people that actually need blood"
